


Homecoming

by SirLadySketch



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Happily Ever After, Twilight Town, Zine fics, nods to the manga, post kh3, sea salt trio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:21:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25243807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirLadySketch/pseuds/SirLadySketch
Summary: Set after the events of Kingdom Hearts 3 (and Sora's return), where the three best friends get ready for their "next life." In the manga, the trio talked about how they would all move into an apartment after they got their hearts back. This is that story. :)This piece was written for Re:Complete: A Sea Salt Trio Zine, which was a charity zine that will donate all profits to Doctors Without Borders!
Relationships: sea salt trio friendship - Relationship
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21
Collections: Recomplete: A Sea Salt Trio Zine





	Homecoming

Axel handled all the paperwork, so it was only right that he got to ‘officiate’ the big day. He made it a very formal affair, stiffening his spine and forcing back a grin as he did his best Yen Sid impression. He’d even pulled out his old Organization coat, although he wore it draped around his shoulders like a cape. He turned to Xion, widening his eyes and forcing himself not to blink as he lowered his voice in a mediocre imitation of the retired master.

“Young lady, are you prepared for the trials ahead of you?” he asked, and cleared his throat to cover up a chuckle. Xion _did_ laugh but played along, standing to attention and saluting him.

“Sir! Yes Sir!”

Axel turned to Xion’s right and stroked an imaginary beard, tilting his head so he could look down his nose in a wizardly manner.

“And you, young man, are you prepared for the difficult tasks that lay ahead?” he asked. Roxas rolled his eyes, arms crossed.

“We already talked about this, _everyone_ has to chip in for chores and slackers get double duty,” but he laughed and mirrored Xion’s salute. “I mean, Sir, yes Sir!”

Axel grinned and bowed low to them both, doffing an imaginary hat.

“Well then, young masters, I bequeath to you the keys to the kingdom-- well, such as it is.” He held out an apartment key to both of them, then turned to fit a key of his own in the locked door. It opened with a soft click, and he stepped aside to let them through. “Behold! Our new place.”

Xion was the first to enter, a slight spring in her step as she crossed the threshold. She kicked off her shoes before bounding into the living room, twirling in a circle to take it all in. There were boxes of their stuff stacked against the wall, and the ugly curtains were still hanging up, despite the landlord’s promise to remove them, but the place smelled like fresh paint and cleaning supplies, and when she turned back to look at them, she was grinning.

“Ohh, Axel, it’s perfect!” Xion said. She darted over to the ugly curtains and pulled them back, revealing the sliding glass door. She opened this and trotted out onto the balcony, peering out over the town, then pointed up. “Look, Roxas! We can see the clocktower from here!”

Roxas entered the apartment at a much more leisurely pace, reaching down to untie his shoes before padding over to stand beside Xion. But he was smiling, and dutifully followed Xion’s finger to agree that, yes, they _could_ see the clocktower, and pointed below-- they could see a bit of the Struggle arena, too.

“You can also see the sea, if you’re in the kitchen,” Axel piped in, as he closed the door and hung up his key. He unzipped his boots and kicked them off, then headed into the kitchen to pull back the curtains there. Roxas and Xion dutifully came back inside to get a good look. 

“The perks of a corner apartment-- we lucked out with this place,” Axel said, then navigated through the stacks of boxes to lead them further into the apartment. “C’mon, I wanna show you the rest of the place-- pictures don’t do it justice, y’know?”

The tour didn’t take that long-- they’d seen the living room and the kitchen (“They’ll look bigger after we’ve unpacked everything, promise”), so all that was left were the three bedrooms and the bathrooms, plus the small guest room/office. They’d seen them, of course, when they’d all looked over the listing, but it was different when you were _there_ , seeing the place that would become “home.” 

Axel picked up one of the boxes from the living room and examined the label. “Looks like this is one of yours, Xi,” he said, then nodded towards the hallway. “You want some help moving them into your room?”

“I can do it, thanks though!” she replied, picking up another box to hand over to Roxas. “You guys have more stuff than me, anyway. Do _you_ need a hand with all your boxes?”

“Nah, we’ll have this sorted in no time,” Roxas said. He opened up a box and sighed, pulling out a blue and white ball. He looked into the box again and shook his head. “I think some of these are things Sora just dumped on us to clear out his room. I don’t even _like_ blitzball.”

Axel looked at his phone, then at the boxes on the floor. “Why don’t we move things into our rooms and unpack for a bit, then we can break for dinner,” he suggested. He grinned as Roxas dropped the ball back into the box and set it by the door. “We can stack miscellaneous crap in here and get rid of anything that we don’t want to keep tomorrow. I can ask that junk hauler guy to bring his cart around and we can fill it up with whatever’s left. Let’s break in… three hours?”

Four hours, a few calls to Sora, and many empty boxes later, they reconvened around the dining room table. It was amazing how much _stuff_ they’d been able to accumulate, given the fact that two of them hadn’t technically been alive for more than three months. Still, they’d made a sizeable dent on the boxes, many of which were now flattened and ready to recycle. Roxas nudged Axel in the shoulder and he flopped onto the seat beside him, takeout box in hand.

“You should’ve waited, you didn’t have to haul everything in here by yourself. We would’ve helped after our mission was done,” Roxas chastised, him. Axel shrugged, slurping up the rest of his noodles before answering.

“I had lotsa help-- lots of friends around here, y’know? Which reminds me!” He got up and rummaged through the freezer, then extracted a box and shook it. “Compliments of the gang, a housewarming gift as a ‘welcome to the neighborhood’ gesture.” 

He popped the box back in the freezer and sat down to resume digging through his takeout carton with chopsticks. “I aheay aht mahn, thsre yers,” he said around a mouthful of noodles.

“Housewarming!”

Roxas slammed his own carton down and jumped up so quickly he almost knocked over his chair. He ran out of the room as Axel and Xion exchanged startled looks, then reemerged a minute later, a box in hand. This he placed on the table between the two of them before taking his own seat again.

“So it’s nothing big, I just thought, um-- I mean, it’s probably not what you think it is, it’s just, uh…” He shrugged, then stared into his takeout box, not meeting their eyes. “It’s just easier to explain once you open it,” he said with a faint blush on his cheeks.

Axel and Xion exchanged another look, then Axel held the box steady as Xion carefully removed the tape seal and pulled away the layers of wrapping paper. With the last sheet peeled back, they peered inside, curious.

Xion began to giggle as soon as she saw it. Axel laughed, too, and extracted the wooden piece within. He set it on the table, its somber face judging the piles of boxes still left unpacked.

“Geeze, Roxas, how much ice cream did you _eat_ , anyway?” Axel teased, and Roxas laughed too, picking up the little Moai figure.

“It’s not the _real_ one-- I mean, it’s not the tissue box you wanted,” he admitted, and turned the top of the statue towards them. “It’s a vase! I spotted it when I went with Sora on that trip back to his home on Destiny Islands.”

He set it back on the table so that it faced them all. “I figured we could use it to store our winner sticks til we get the one from the ice cream stand.”

“Oh, that reminds me, too!” Xion gasped, then she too disappeared into her room. Axel continued to admire their newest housemate with a grin.

“Y’know, he’s even cooler than the tissue box,” he laughed. “We could probably save those sticks for something else, like buying snacks for the beach.” 

“Look!” Xion reappeared with several popsicle sticks in hand, and leaned over the table to drop them into the statue. They landed with a satisfying clatter, and she grinned at their surprised expressions. “I asked everyone to save them for me if they weren’t going to collect them for themselves. I figured we could go down to the store later and trade them in for something fun!”

“The gang gave you their winner sticks?” Roxas asked, impressed. She beamed at him, bouncing on her toes.

“Some of them! I also won two off of Seifer in a Struggle match,” she explained. “I figured we could save them up for something fun.”

“I have two sticks in my gear, too,” Axel said, then shrugged. “Eh, they’re _somewhere_ , anyway. I’ll have to dig for ‘em. In the meantime...” Axel picked up the statue and carted it into the living room. Roxas and Xion followed along, and watched him move a few books aside to make room for their newest roommate. When Axel stepped away, he held three shiny slips of paper in his hand. He handed one to Roxas and one to Xion, then tucked the third back into his pocket.

“I wanted to get us all something to celebrate, too,” he explained, grinning. 

It took Roxas a moment to respond, words failing him. When he finally _was_ able to speak, it came out in a rush. “Axel, this is a premium train pass!”

“This is too much!” Xion chimed in, equally flabbergasted. Axel shrugged and scratched the back of his head.

“Working with the RG restoration committee pays pretty well,” he admitted, “And when I told Leon we’d swing by to pick up one of the dalmatians he all but threw money at me--OOF.”

Xion knocked the wind out of him with her hug, although she loosened her grip just enough to smile up at him. 

“We’re getting a dog?” she asked as Roxas said, “It’s gonna be just like old times!”

“Better than old times, I ho--ope _oof_ ,” Axel grunted as Roxas’s hug from the other side squeezed out whatever breath he had left.

“We made it,” Roxas said into Axel’s shoulder.

“We can do whatever we want,” Xion said from her place against his chest. 

Axel extracted his arms so he could return their hugs, holding them close.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “We’re gonna be ok. We’re _home_.”

**Author's Note:**

> As a fun tidbit, I do have a general idea of where their apartment is located: In order to see the clock tower, the Struggle arena, and the sea, they've got to be in an apartment that's just south of what we can see in KH2's Struggle arena. However, that places them almost smack-dab under the train tracks-- no wonder Axel was able to get such a good deal on the place!


End file.
